


Dirt

by flowersforgraves



Series: BTHB [4]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: (probably), Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Head Injury, Medical Inaccuracies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 11:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16016840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/pseuds/flowersforgraves
Summary: Carson takes care of his patient.





	Dirt

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: "hair matted with blood + any"
> 
> (card [here](https://flowersforgraves.tumblr.com/post/177921515881/) \-- feel free to prompt me with any remaining squares! the post with claimed but not written squares should be near the top of my page.)

They find John face down on the cold stone floor of the cell.

He’s currently unconscious, which Carson supposes is a blessing, considering the state of his hair and face and clothes. There’s not a single inch of cloth on him that isn’t stained, and the skin exposed by the tears and rips in his uniform is dark with dirt and dried blood.

Carson pushes into the cell, already putting on a pair of latex gloves, as soon as Cadman has checked it for traps and declared it “as safe as it’s gonna get, Doc.” He can hear the sharp indrawn breath behind him as Rodney sees the extent of the damage done to his team leader, but he ignores it in favor of focusing on his patient.

There’s a lot of blood on the floor. Most of it is still tacky, and despite his experience Carson still shudders a little. Seeing the aftermath of torture hasn’t gotten any easier, and frankly he hopes it never does. Carefully, he examines John’s injuries, cataloguing them as he goes. Ribs -- bruised at least, possibly broken. Hands -- careful knife cuts, painful but not debilitating. Back -- bruises darkening and scratches newly clotted. Lips -- split, swollen, chapped.

It’s the head wound that has Carson worried. He’s going to have to shave John’s head to have a proper look at it, and he won’t be able to tell whether it’s serious until he does that.

Even unconscious, John still makes a soft pained noise when Carson’s gloved fingers brush over the wound. Carson soothes him with a hand on his shoulder, and beckons Cadman’s team to lift their commanding officer onto a stretcher so they can get back to the gate as fast as possible. Carson hurries to go through the gate first, radioing ahead to get a room prepped.

The wormhole sparks into being, and Carson thinks for a wild moment of how this is _normal_ now, before he heads through the gate at a flat run.

Under the lights of the infirmary John’s injuries don’t look as bad as they did in the dark foulness of the cell. He’ll have restricted range of motion, but he won’t be permanently damaged. But his head wound still looks painful -- he’s damn lucky to be unconscious so Carson doesn’t have to sedate him. Carson scrubs up as fast as he can and starts cleaning the wound. There’s hair stuck together with dried blood, glued to itself, to John’s scalp, to the open wound. Carson shaves away as much hair as he can before using forceps.

Now that there’s a better view of the injury, Carson knows exactly how to fix it. He works quickly, professionally, and within moments he’s finished. As he leaves the room to scrub down, he stops by one of the nurses. “Make sure the rest of his head is shaved,” he says, knowing that John will appreciate his hair being the same all over his head. 

He drops the dirty scrubs into the wash-bin and washes his hands for a long time.


End file.
